Japan Camera, Santa, and Danish modern design

I got a job! I’m working in a print shop. It’s called Japan Camera, and we do sell a few cameras, but it’s mostly about photo prints. I’ve been there for like 4 days now, and it’s legit so much fun.

People come in for passports, I get to take the picture and retouch it. Cool! That makes me a professional photographer, technically! The boss is running the Pics with Santa booth at the mall, which is why I got hired – they needed an extra person in the store while he’s away. I got to help at the Santa booth one day! It was crazy hectic, customers non-stop. I was tracking orders in our book, printing and packaging express prints on the spot, giving people directions to the food court, and making faces at crying toddlers all at the same time.

Most babies and toddlers cry when you hand them over to Santa. The parents are disappointed, but I think those shots are the best. You’ve got perfect focus and framing, bright lighting, and an active, engaged, ALIVE subject. They’re so real. I’m sure everyone wants the perfectly posed shot with two smiling kids sitting quietly, but give me the angry baby trying to escape anytime.

I’ve just spent the last 4 years working in a quiet office where the most excitement we ever got was when Dan brought his dog to work. I love it! I was only there for an hour – maybe it’s less fun if you’re doing it all day, I don’t know. But I’m so glad I get a chance to do it now, just for the next month.

Back in the shop, I do lots of different things – assembling calendars, printing mugs, ringing up orders, all kinds of shop stuff. It’s all simple, yet incredibly challenging when it’s all thrown at you at once. The boss, Ben, says I’m fantastic and that I seem like I know how to do everything already. Feels nice to be appreciated!

I got a car, it’s a 2007 Toyota Matrix with 122k on it – brand new, as far as I’m concerned. It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever bought a car that wasn’t a shitbucket. I got it because I knew I would lose my mind since I’m living with my mom and dad in Royal Oak right now, a million miles from town and up in the hills, and I needed to get out of the house – but I wantedsomething with good resale value too, just in case I get my head straightened out enough to let me go back to Denmark in like, a month.

So I got a Toyota! And now I’m flat broke and can’t afford to move out of mom and dad’s house even if I knew where I wanted to go. The only place I drive besides work is the gym but I go there three times a week.

That’s because I’m actually working two jobs right now. The print shop is 20 hours a week, and the other one is a secret at the moment unfortunately. It’s not an exciting secret or anything, it’s just a temporary remote job that I can’t talk about. But that means I’m working more than 40 hours a week at two different jobs, my free time has evaporated, and I haven’t seen a paycheck yet.

It’s too bad, because before I started work I was trying to hustle up a business idea – fill up a container with Danish Modern furniture provided by my excellent contact in Denmark, and sell it here in Victoria. I went around to the four shops in Victoria that sell that type of thing (and three other shops that are kinda similar) and made friends with the owners. They’re all interested, but all of them told me they can only take a few items, they don’t have inventory space, their customers are very particular, and Vancouver is a much bigger market. They even gave me lists of places I should specifically go check out.

So I’m keen to go to Vancouver and make some more friends there, but like I said, working full time and then some now. Next time I have time off will be after Christmas.

Hopefully, by the time that happens, my contact in Denmark will have started talking to me again and forgiven me for the gigantic asshole I acted like last time I messaged him. He reads my blog, so who knows, it could happen. And that’s where my life is right now – all over the place and no idea what’s happening next.